This happened to me , I have an iPhone (13 pro max) it was on EE with an esim and I’d had number number for 17 years so I wanted to bring it with me….. turns out esims cause issues but please read what happened and hopefully if it happens to you you’ll find the help you need here because it’s nowhere else on the entire site as you’ll see!
good luck!
(Firstly as side note I didn’t get a welcome email with a number so I couldn’t change PAC code ID had to do it for me, once my messages came through I’d received my welcome message and number via text message! In case anyone wonders where they’re number is to port their number using PAC code)
SO, here goes , if you are switching to ID mobile and you have a dual sim phone (for example an iPhone 13 Pro /pro max and other top end Apple phones some Samsung along with other models now too) AND you are running an esim from your current supplier AND you wish to bring your number across please take note and Read On:
The process of porting your number with PAC code takes about 4 days
before sim swap in a single sim phone was easy and this went on behind the scenes however as I found out with a dial sim phone and an esim things were not as easy!
I had to keep the esim running until it was totally switched off my EE , the number was running on both EE & ID at the same time for a while and then after about 24 hours or so it switched to ID however the esim didn’t disconnect so I called EE who told me to keep esim until I received the final bill - this meant it was fully closed down and my account deactivated at which point to esim would disappear anyway!
I had gone out for the first time since I had swapped the sims and on the way home as I left the town centre area, suddenly my music through Spotify stopped and this continued until I got home & my phone picked up my home wifi…..I was distraught
I’d just spent days trying to sort this new sim and swap number over etc… I’d made double sure coverage in my area was as good as what I was getting from EE (with ID & Three and it seemed like as soon as EE had shut my account down I’d suddenly left the town centre area, driven to a quieter area and bam, there was no signal at all!
not one bar!
I tried to do a few things with my phone
I ordered some food
the guy got lost tried to call me 4 times and apparently my number was just not working either
so my only option was the community pages
and help pages , and Facebook
the community pages…..
where there is a lot of bitter people
saying they wished they’d never joined
they don’t get good signal, they can’t get fast 5G etc etc… and I suddenly panicked (I don’t like in a busy town or city so was my phone going to work at all! Oh no what had I done!
I sent a lot of messages to complain on here and on Facebook, and then I started to try things:
(I screen recorded as I was doing it so once I found the solution I could inform ID too as this clearly hasn’t been an issue so much yet, but with prices rising in April and other providers having esims, this may happen again )
basically
I don’t want anyone to go through the hours of worry I did!
I tried everything it said to try on the help pages
nothing worked
in the end I went through to my ‘mobile data’ in settings and the esim from EE was still there,
inactive but still there
I had it switched off but that didn’t matter
the issue was every time I tried to turn the ‘ID sim’ on the ‘EE esim’ would override it and switch it off again so my only option (against what EE said - they told me the esim would deactivate and go away & NOT to delete it myself) my only option was to delete it so I did….
within seconds all the missed messages, texts and calls came through.
I switched off my home wifi to double check 4G connectivity & everything and I had a safely fluctuating 3-4 bars …. Which I’m perfectly ok with!
my worry was no signal whatsoever and it shut off the second EE cancelled my esim off …..but having that esim still attached to my phone, even though it wasn’t active, AND switched off, still would not allow the ID sim to work
this was Saturday it’s now Wednesday
I have periodically tested my Wi-Fi off and on to check signal and I need to go out and check it away from home but as I was informed before I got contract, it is giving me the coverage I expected…. So if you have an esim in a dual sim phone and you’re switching your number over too, please don’t worry , make sure you delete the esim as it may override the ID physical sim and stop it from working completely!
EE should have told me that and because it’s so new ID didn’t know either, so I hope someone will be able to find this useful
DELETE the esim pretty much as soon as the number comes across (switching off doesn’t work it has to be deleted!)
like I said normally it takes 3-4 days to sort everything but you don’t see that with a normal physical sim swap
having the esim and being told not to delete it, messed everything up
you can delete it as soon as ID has your number and you get the message from iD to CONFIRM the number is transferred!
and please note too: be careful what you read on the community because it panicked me even more: some people want what’s probably not possible anywhere but central London for example, so they complain and say the service is terrible! It’s absolutely the same as I got from EE but 3 times cheaper….. So be careful what you read!
best of luck and if I only help one person that’s perfect my job is done
thanks
